556. DAVID HOCKNEY: A DAY ON THE GRAND CANAL WITH THE EMPEROR OF CHINA

Peter Josyph

Until the mid-19th century, perspective dominated the world of visual art. Yorkshire-born artist David Hockney would argue that the advent of perspective was not without cost. And to make his point, in 1988 he teamed up with filmmaker Philip Haas to compare two Chinese renderings of similar scenes: Emperor Kangxi’s tour of Southern China painted as a travel narrative on a 72-foot scroll by Wang Hui in 1689 before perspective invaded Chinese art, and a tour of similar territory by Kangxi’s grandson, Emperor Qianlong, painted with perspective by Xu Yang a century later. For Hockney the earlier scroll is superior in its detailed depiction of towns and their inhabitants. Hockney and Haas’s short film has a revealing subtitle: Surface Is Illusion But So Is Depth. Rare in its simplicity, the film features Hockney affectionately showing us the scrolls, and, in conclusion, a 1763 painting of Venice by Canaletto. Seldom seen and little known, for a long time the film was only available on stray VHS copies. A lively discussion will follow the film.

1:00 – 3:30 p.m.

1 Session

Thursday, May 21

Fee:  $50